


Thorn In My Pride

by sportivetricks (tamlane)



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Cult
Genre: Angst, F/M, Manipulation, Unresolved Sexual Tension, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 06:00:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12227157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamlane/pseuds/sportivetricks
Summary: Ally waits by the front door, listening for Ivy's key in the lock.  Instead, she hears a knock.





	Thorn In My Pride

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn’t wait to find out how Kai and Ally join forces, so I wrote how it happens in my head. Pre-7x05.
> 
> This is not a romance. There’s nothing overtly sexual, either. Unless you consider Kai and Ally talking to each other to be sexual. Which I do. La.

There was no safe place.

Ally wandered in a fever from room to room of her house, eyes searching every corner, hands grazing every surface. Had they touched this picture frame? Had they shuffled across that rug? Could she be sure this lamp had always been plugged into that socket? 

Had they sniffed this perfume? Opened that drawer? Searched that closet?

Every piece of her life had been laid bare to them. Everything.

The upstairs was the worst. Ally couldn’t bathe in her tub, even after she located the camera and bashed it to pieces on the tile. She couldn’t sleep in her bed, even after running both sheets and bedcovers through three separate wash cycles. She couldn’t stand at the head of the stairs without the image of a mask staring back at her. Without feeling the ghost of Ivy’s slap.

And downstairs, Ally couldn’t look at her front door without hearing the clanking of metal. The echo of a gunshot. The soft finality of the door closing behind her wife and son. 

Yet that’s where she ended up. At her front door, back pressed against the wood and knees drawn up to her chest. This was where she needed to be if Ivy changed her mind. No, _when_ Ivy changed her mind. It wouldn’t be enough to hear the turn of Ivy’s key in the lock. She wanted to feel it.

Instead, out of nowhere, she felt a knock.

Ally froze. There was nothing to do. No practical or acceptable response to the intrusion, other than to remain completely still and silent and hope it would go away. It didn’t, and the next knock was more insistent, the vibrations of it rattling her spine. A million needles pricked at her scalp; her heart banged a nauseating cadence in her throat.

"Who is it?" she asked at last, in a voice not entirely meant to be heard.

An equally quiet voice answered her. "It’s me."

Tears splashed down her cheeks before she even felt them sting her eyes. "Me who?" she asked sharply. Even though she knew.

"Ally."

She shuddered. 

"You know who."

The tears became a silent sob.

"I’m not going away."

Ally didn’t insult either of them by threatening to call the police. She just wept. And wept. Until there was no silencing it. Until the pent-up grief clawed its way out of her in a long, rasping cry. She cried until her eyes swelled and her throat burned. Until her sleeves were soaked with tears and snot.

She cried until she was sure he was gone. And then, in the druggish aftermath, the daze of her release, she found herself wishing he was still there.

She found herself rasping that lone, harsh syllable into the silence.

"Kai."

"Yes, Ally. I’m here."

Ally slowly stood up and turned. Pressed her sticky face against the door. Slapped her palm hard against its surface. "Why?" she yelled. " _Why_ are you here?"

The silence hung so long between them that she momentarily feared he had answered her, and she hadn’t heard him. She pressed her ear to the door. 

"Because you need me."

This time it was her fist that made contact with the door, her head shaking from side to side. "Please go away. Please, please go away."

"Ally. Open the door."

In the end, she surrendered only because she was exhausted. Because it was easier to follow that simple instruction, to perform that simple action, than it was to consider all the reasons not to. Like a sleepwalker, she turned the lock and cracked the door open. 

A frigid gust of wind chilled the remnants of her tears. He wore all black. His hair was down but his head bare. Scraggly curtains of blue obscured all but a narrow stripe of his face.

His brows knitted together, his eyes skimming her front. _Fine_ , she thought. _Let him see. Let him look his fill of my mess._ He’d heard her make that mess. What did she have to hide?

"Where’s your heart?"

Ally blinked. "What?"

He nodded towards her neck. "Your heart. Where is it?"

Her hand went to her chest, feeling the outline of the pendant beneath her sweatshirt.

"Can I see it?"

"Why?" she asked, a knife edge in her voice.

"Because you’re not really you without it. Are you?"

Watching him like a hawk, Ally reached into her sweatshirt and pulled out the charm. She paused, fingers protectively grasping it, her eyes searching his. He couldn’t know. How could he know? She dropped it, felt the chain pull under its weight.

He cautiously lifted a hand. A big hand with windburnt knuckles. Long, agile fingers. Short nails. They looked like hands that did a lot of work, though not the type that would create callouses. Work like typing.

"May I touch it?"

"Absolutely not," she said, voice icy.

He stuffed that hand into his coat pocket.

"How do you know my name?"

He shook his head, giving her an almost pitying look.

Ally’s nostrils flared. "You’ve been in my house. Haven’t you?"

"Yes, Ally," he replied gently. "I have."

She grasped the icy metal bars between them, scanning him from head to toe. The wind picked at the hem of his black trenchcoat, and the pieces fell into place. She gritted her teeth. "You’ve been in my bed."

"Yes, Ally," he replied again, leveling her with black eyes. "I have."

Ally moved to slam the door. With lightning speed and surprising force, he stopped it with the flat of his palm.

"I’m not going to hurt you," he said quickly. Then, drawing out every syllable: "I am never going to hurt you."

What did think he’d been doing up to now?

"You feel betrayed, I know. Violated. I get that." He lowered his voice. "But you know who let me in. Don’t you?"

It was Winter. It had to be Winter. And all of the excuses Ivy had made for her. Somewhere, even now, Ivy was likely still fuming, still wondering how Ally had seduced their nanny. Ally’s hand went to her bruised cheek. Fresh tears stung her eyes.

"Who let me in, Ally?"

But Winter hadn’t been there that day. Had she?

"I don’t believe you."

"You don’t want to believe me. But you know." He stepped closer, his fingers curling around the metal bars just above hers. Ally didn’t move. "Part of you knows."

"What did you do to her?” Ally asked. Her own voice sounded numb to her, foreign.

Kai’s head jerked back in surprise. "Do to her? I didn’t do anything to her." He paused, eyes narrowing. "I did something _for_ her. I made her strong."

Ally felt as though she were looking at him from the other end of some long, distorted tunnel.

“But I don’t have to do that for you. You’re strong already. Stronger than her."

Her wife had gone to this… this man.

He took Ally’s silence as license to continue. "Courage isn’t facing the horrors outside of us. It’s mastering the ones inside. You’ve done that before, haven’t you?" He cocked his head, his hands sliding down the bars until their skin made contact. "You must have."

Ally released a rattling sigh.

"You’ve done it for her, haven’t you?" His face twisted fiercely, his tone suddenly harsh. "I want you to do it for you."

A tear rolled down her cheek, pooled in the corner of her lip. "Who are you?"

He slowly slid his hand all the way down over hers. His pinky finger gently searched out hers, curling around it.

"Your humble servant," he whispered. "Command me. Go on."

Ally squeezed her eyes closed, feeling the hammer of his pulse against hers.

There was only one command he wanted. She knew it, though she barely recognized her voice as she gave it.

"Come in."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are lovely. :) You can find me on tumblr at [sportivetricks](http://sportivetricks.tumblr.com/).


End file.
